This means of transportation can indeed make our lives easier, but not as globally as we would like.
What are electric scooters and where did they come from?
The easiest way to describe these devices is as scooters that ride themselves thanks to an electric motor and a battery.
Modern electric scooters can reach speeds of up to about 30-40 km/h, and one battery charge lasts on average 30-50 km. Operating them is simple: turn one of the handles – the scooter accelerates, press the brake lever – the device slows down.
Scooters, which ride by themselves, were first created in the U.S. back in 1915. However, they worked on gasoline. The first electric scooters started appearing in the early 2000s, manufactured by Razor.
Since the mid-2010s, this mode of transportation began to gain popularity thanks to comfortable, fast, and lightweight scooter models from manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Segway. At the end of 2017, the first electric scooter rental services opened in the United States, and six months later similar companies appeared in Russia. They started talking about electric scooters as the transport of the future and saw great prospects in it.
What’s good about electric scooters?
First of all, they are not cars. Cars pollute the environment, destroy urban space, create traffic jams, and in general have long been outdated as a mode of transport.
Electric scooters allow you to move around the city 5-6 times faster than walking. At the same time they do not emit any harmful substances, take up very little space, even when parked, and almost do not require money for maintenance (if you charge the device from a home outlet, it will cost inexpensive).
The ubiquity of electric scooters brings benefits to city dwellers. For many people, they are replacing cars, reducing exhaust emissions and freeing up space that used to be occupied by parked cars. Scooter users get to work faster, so they have more free time.
Electric scooters are safer and more comfortable than many other means of transportation, including longboards, gyro scooters and segways. And anyone can use a scooter: you only need to stand on it and hold on to the handlebars. Plus, even if such transport suddenly fails the motor or runs out of battery, it does not turn into a meaningless pile of iron. You can ride it by pushing off with your foot – you’ll get some exercise, too. Check my profile here
What’s wrong with this mode of transportation
One of the main disadvantages of the electric scooter is that it is almost impossible to use in non-ideal weather conditions. Snow, cold, forcing to wear a lot of clothes, and even just heavy rain make this transport useless. Therefore, for example, in Russian cities, short-term rental services for these devices do not work in late fall and winter.
Another drawback is the human factor. In 2018, thanks to electric scooter rental services, a “scooter epidemic” swept many U.S. cities. Thousands of devices appeared on the streets of Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Los Angeles almost out of nowhere.
The cities and their residents were not prepared for it. Due to inexperience and the lack of bicycle lanes in many places, scooter users often had accidents involving cars or ran over pedestrians themselves. People parked their gadgets in the middle of the street, and many devices were stolen or broken.
A year later, the situation has improved thanks to the intervention of city administrations. But the fact remains that scooters are driven by people who sometimes behave unsafely, either intentionally or accidentally. The devices themselves are not dangerous, except that they occasionally break while riding, but that’s rare. In San Francisco, out of several tens of thousands of rides a month, no more than 50 end in disaster because a scooter breaks down.
Where to get an electric scooter
The easiest way to get an electric scooter for use is through rental services. The main advantages of these solutions are cheapness and convenience. To go on a trip, you only need to download the app, register and find the nearest scooter or station for their issuance howitstart.
A common problem is an insufficient number of scooters. Many also have difficulties with registration and payment, often the apps mistakenly withdraw money for rides, and the scooters and stations refuse to work.
So if you plan to ride a scooter regularly, it makes sense to buy your own device. Compared to rental services, it will pay for itself after a few months of daily use this is the secret business ideas to get you started as an entrepreneur hobigame.
Will electric scooters change the situation in cities?
At first glance, the electric scooter seems almost ideal for urban transport. It is light, fast, comfortable, cheap, does not pollute the environment, requires almost no maintenance and does not take up much space. But can it replace a car for short journeys, or have any impact on the image of the city in the short term? Not likely. And here’s why:
- Electric scooter rentals are not available in all cities.
- In most of the country, scooters can only be used for 4-6 months a year.
- Few cities have bicycle lanes, and it is incredibly dangerous to ride a scooter on the roads or sidewalks. Whether and how quickly the infrastructure will adjust to electric scooter users is a big question.
- A scooter won’t help if the whole family has to go somewhere. Few people will want to make sure that kids on scooters don’t fall into ditches all the time instead of a relaxing rideindian news.
Despite all the pluses of scooters as transportation, they have yet to fundamentally change the urban environment anywhere. Even judging by the reports of popular rental services, most of the use of the devices boils down to the fact that people in 20-30% of cases use them instead of cars to get to work, university or a place to meet friends.
In cities where temperatures don’t drop below freezing, these devices could eventually provoke some changes in the urban landscape. It will become easier for people to travel short distances, and there will be slightly fewer cars on the roads, as well as emissions in the atmosphere. But electric scooters are not likely to revolutionize urban transportation anytime soon tvbucetas.
